As we worked our way along a huge, emerging rock reef, bass seemed to disappear. We noted the time. High noon on a bright, sunny day with little wind. We decided to fish to the end of the reef, then try some open-water tactics. Meanwhile, I changed to a small soft-plastic swimbait on a 1/8-ounce jig.

Pitching into 4 feet of water, I let the bait drop a few feet and began to slowly reel, rod tip pointed down. It ticked a rock, I raised the tip slightly, and a 7-pound walleye inhaled the jig-plastic combo. The next hour was like a constant replay of that little dance. The walleyes ranged from 2 to 7 pounds, and all of them had our jigs deep, almost down the throat.

We could see walleye boats out over the basin. Later, in the local pub, a walleye angler wandered over and asked how the bass bite was. We said, “Fine.” They said the walleyes were lethargic. “Nothing is happening during the day. The evening bite is slow, but should be going pretty good in a few weeks.”

That was during June, on Rainy Lake, where I’ve encountered similar conversations many times. Similar exchanges took place at the ramps, on the water and in local watering holes around Big Stone, Leech, Mille Lacs, Winnibigoshish, Lake Michigan, Red Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Gogebic. Basin walleyes are picky. They come shallow in every lake you fish, during the day, almost all summer long. And they go there for one reason. To consider these fish “oddballs” seems odd, indeed, especially considering how often this topic has been broached in the past 20 years. Yet, there it is. Call these tactics “oddball” if you want. I call it bread and butter.

From ice-out through some point in late July, walleyes make midday forays into very shallow water. So shallow, depths of 15 feet can be more than 100 yards away, toward midlake. Baitfish that stay shallow are the targets, and those include shiners, chubs, young perch, young bass, and small suckers. In shallow lakes, with basins less than 50 feet deep, this trend may continue all summer. In most lakes, it picks up again in the fall. Cover can be rock or weeds, but some kind of cover is essential. Places to look for tend to be near an “elevator,” where 20-foot depths bend in toward shore. But walleyes spread out from those points, along weedlines, rock reefs, and rocky shorelines. Certainly, start the search near inside turns along deeper breaks, but don’t confine it to that small area.

Jigworms, Still Water

Walleye guide Steve DeZurik catches big river walleyes on ring worms in open water all winter long, in the pools of the Mississippi River near the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Various In-Fisherman articles of the past 4 years have highlighted his tactics, which primarily involve 4- to 5-inch soft-plastic ring worms pitched on 1/16- to 1/4-ounce jigheads. Since first trying this technique, DeZurik and his clients have fought nearly 100 walleyes over 10 pounds into the net, mostly in water under 40°F, with no bait in the boat.

If walleyes eat jigworms in 34°F water to that extent, what makes anyone believe plastics can’t or won’t work at temperatures associated with metabolic peak, when they have to eat more and faster? The effectiveness of the jigworm is simple to explain. When moving through the water, it has the profile of a minnow. Just watch one. The best worms have a short sickle tail, as opposed to a long, rippling tail. Rings are good, giving the worm a little bulk, added water resistance, a see-through texture, and a broader profile. In cloudy water, YUM Rib Worms, Case Plastics Ring Worms, and other styles with chartreuse tails produce dozens of bites per day when slow-rolled along shallow weed or rock edges.

But other styles of worm produce better in other conditions. The Persuader Curly Tail triggers a lot of shallow summer walleyes in lakes. Hand-poured with bass in mind, the 4-inch Curly Tail combines a smooth exterior with a small, subtle, action tail. The best Curly Tail colors, for walleyes, tend to be translucent versions that imitate minnows, like Smoke Green and Albino Shad. Something about light passing through plastic seems to turn walleyes on in clear water. The Berkley 4-inch PowerBait Power Worm is another favorite in clear water, in subtle colors like green pumpkin, black, and watermelon.

Use a strong but pliable 6-pound-test monofilament like Maxima Ultragreen on a large capacity spinning reel (larger spools mean longer casts). Use a 7- to 7½-foot, medium-light, fast-action spinning rod. Tie on a 1/16-ounce jighead with a quality hook meant for plastics, like the Owner Ultrahead, or the Matzuo Heavy Metal Jighead. Measure the jig against the worm, and mark where the point should come out by nicking the worm. The distance should be the same as the distance from the back of the jighead to the beginning of the bend in the hook. Thread the worm on by going straight through the nose and straight through the middle of the worm with the hook coming out on the seam. It should look straight. If it’s all bunched up, start over.

Put the wind behind you. Fish from the front of the boat, using the trolling motor to slowly inch along. Make long casts parallel to the edge you’ve chosen. Let the worm drop almost to bottom in depths varying from 2 to 10 feet, point the rod tip down, and slowly reel it in. The slow, constant, horizontal movement of the worm and its flickering tail are the only triggers necessary. (I like to add Dr. Juice, however, to unscented plastics.)

Keep it near bottom. If it doesn’t touch occasionally, it’s moving too fast. If it drags or snags, it’s moving too slow. Don’t worry about missing bites unless you’re a complete zombie. Walleyes in these depths wrench the rod out of your hands.

Be a Hollow Minnow

The hollow minnow is a Frankenstein polyglot combining aspects of soft swimbaits, tubes, and old shad bodies. Given but one style of plastic to fish for walleyes today, hollow minnows would be a perfect choice, as they combine realism with a truly functional design.

Paddletail versions include the Bass Magnet Eyecatcher Shad, the Berkley PowerBait Hollow Belly Minnow, and the YUM Money Minnow. Because these baits are hollow, they have thin sides that give and dampen the action of the tail. Those thin, giving sides provide soft texture when a fish bites. Hollow also means full of air, so they hang around on the pause, resisting a rapid drop. And one of the most tantalizing qualities hollow minnows possess involves the way light passes through them, changing their appearance from moment to moment, darting quickly between high and low visibility phases as they pass between light and shadow, between a predator and the sun.

Hollow minnows work in very shallow water, using the same technique described for jigworms. Jigheads used with hollow bodies need to be beefed up a little, to carry the amount of plastic involved without spinning, and to accomplish the same retrieve speeds used with jigworms. The 3½-inch Eyecatcher Shad, for instance, has to be fished almost too slow with anything lighter than a 1/8-ounce jighead.

Hollow minnows can excel in deeper water, and in current, in conjunction with 1/4- to 3/8-ounce jigs. Jigworms work on deeper reefs and flats, too, when combined with heavier heads, but the deeper you go, the less aggressive walleyes might be. Shallow or deep, the approach remains the same. Cast, allow the jig to carry the plastic to bottom, and begin a slow retrieve that keeps the combo moving horizontally near bottom. Often overlooked at midday are those middepth reefs that top out at 14 to 18 feet. Hollow minnows create a truly subtle approach that actually covers water a little faster than bait in these situations.

Sight-Fishing Swimbaits

The effectiveness of soft-plastic swimbaits, like the Berkley PowerBait Swim Shad, and the Sunrize Tackle Big Hammer, have been covered many times in the pages of In-Fisherman publications. The realistic profile combined with a thumping tail draws walleyes out of the weeds and into the boat.

Cory Schmidt, writer and frequent contributor, has been using the new Castaic soft swimbaits for, of all things, sight-fishing walleyes. “That the Castaic Jerky J Swim worked in shallow water in the river wasn’t surprising,” he says. “The surprising thing was how effective swimbaits became when we could see walleyes just under the surface. Early last year we were smallmouth fishing and found walleyes up in bulrush beds, in 2 to 3 feet of water, where we could see them cruising. In later weeks we saw them above cabbage flats that taper down to 12 feet. They were high in the water column, up over the cabbage stalks. In both instances, we were sight-fishing for them.”

Finding walleyes in bulrushes is not surprising at all to those of us who fish for bass in shallow water. What is surprising is the fact that walleye fishermen find it surprising. When it’s calm enough to see into the water, visit some shallow rockpiles and rock reefs this summer, and watch the parade of walleyes swimming by in 3 to 5 feet of water. Point is, sight-fishing for walleyes shouldn’t be as surprising as it apparently is.

“Pitch a swimbait to a visible walleye from a position where you can pull it away from them as opposed to pulling it into them, and they nail it most of the time,” Schmidt says. “The idea is to pitch it far enough beyond them so they don’t spook, then lead it past them close enough to inspire a positive reaction. Not too close. Drawing the bait 3 to 5 feet from their noses is perfect in most sight-fishing situations.”

Schmidt was using the Castaic Jerky J Swim, a 3.5-inch soft-plastic swimbait. “It’s different from most paddletail swimbaits,” he says. “It has a thinner body than most, but it’s more or less solid, unlike the new hollow swimbaits. It can be rigged weedless with a swimbait-style offset hook, for targeting walleyes down on the weededge. Unlike most swimbaits, the Jerky J Swim has a slot through the middle of the bait, where the hook slides easily up into the jaw when a walleye hits. But I like to use a 1/8-ounce jighead most of the time when targeting visible fish.

“The profile of the bait is key. It does a good job of duplicating ciscoes, shiners, and perch, because of the thinner profile. It has a gummy texture, but it’s tough enough to catch a dozen walleyes before having to replace it. You get excellent hookups, too. Stiffer plastics can ball up in their mouth on an aggressive bite and block the point of the hook.”

As walleyes become more pressured, realism becomes more important. Some of the soft swimbaits of today are hard to tell from the real thing when swimming. “The Castaic Catch 22 in the 4- and 6-inch sizes work,” Schmidt says. “These are brand-new baits, and we just began experimenting with them this past fall, but, yeah, we caught fish. Walleyes really crushed them when they’re up shallow. They were really attracted to the action of this bait. The neat thing about it is the interior skeleton. The bait might tear or rip but it’s going to continue swimming.”

Walleyes inhabit shallow water everywhere they live, almost every day of the week, all summer long. The way to catch them is with plastics. Without a doubt, plastics produce a faster, more aggressive bite most days than leeches and minnows combined.

The trouble is convincing someone to do it. On a sunny, hot day in late June, every year, I will find myself alone around a shallow reef on one of the big Central Minnesota lakes with walleyes trying to jump into the boat, chasing plastic worms, swimbaits, and hollow-belly plastics. Seven walleyes in seven casts at high noon in 4 feet of water can be every bit as common as a hot dog in a baseball park, when you find the right cover.